Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the deaths of Gynnya McMillen, a 16 year old Black girl from Kentucky, and Sarah Reed, a 32 year old Black woman from London, both of whom were found dead in state custody on January 11th, 2016. Though they were separated by more than 4,000 miles, the circumstances of their deaths remind us that the vulnerabilities facing Black women and girls occur across borders and nationstates, and that the deaths of women of color at the hands of the state is not just a US problem.

Gynnya McMillen was found dead in the Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center after just one night spent at the facility. She had been detained the day before after a physical altercation with her mother while on a weekend pass from Maryhurst, the state’s oldest child-welfare agency. Gynnya, who had spent much of her childhood moving from one foster home or facility to another, had been living at Maryhurst since July 2015.

Investigation reports revealed that on the day of her death, Gynnya was physically restrained by facility personnel after she refused to remove her sweatshirt. A spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice said that the staff performed martial arts on her to ensure compliance. “The staff performed an Aikido restraint hold to safely conduct a pat-down search and remove the youth's hoodie,” the spokesperson stated. Gynnya, who had no previously known health conditions, was found dead in her cell the following morning. A subsequent investigation into McMillen’s death found that six detention center employees failed to follow a protocol requiring that she be checked on every 15 minutes, and that they falsified departmental logs after her death.

That same day, 32 year old Sarah Reed was found unresponsive in her cell at Holloway prison, where staff reported attempting CPR with no success. Prior to being put on remand to Holloway prison in 2014 -- which was unexpected and unclear in reasoning -- Reed was charged with grievous bodily harm with intent for striking back in self defense against a fellow Maudsley Hospital patient who sexually assaulted her. After receiving the charges, she appeared at Camberwell Green magistrates court, where she was placed before trial in custody at Holloway prison, an institution known for acts of self-harm among inmates and overcrowding. Two years prior to that incident, Reed had been violently assaulted by a police officer, who was subsequently fired, while being arrested for shoplifting.

In both situations, basic failures in accountability between agencies in the criminal justice system and social services led to the loss of life, and untreated trauma was met with physical abuse and criminalization rather than mental health services and care.

Gynnya McMillen and Sarah Reed are just two of many Black women and girls who have needlessly died while in detainment or in prison. We must demand justice in response to these cases and hold government agencies accountable for their failures to protect basic human rights. No longer can we allow Black women and girls to fall through the system’s deadly cracks.

Family members of Black women who have been killed by the police join together with leading feminist leaders during AAPF's #SayHerName Weekend in NYC, November 18-21 2016

Now more than ever, it is urgent that we insist on building intersectional social movements to combat the forces of hate that threaten the humanity of us all. In a world in which a man who has admitted to sexually assaultive behavior, denigrated people on the basis of race, disability, national origin and religion, and who threatens to upend rights that so many people hold dear has been elected President, we need intersectional activism more than ever. Marginalized populations are finding themselves facing new levels of vulnerability, and those who are multiply impacted must look to social justice advocates to fight against the cumulative impact of these hostile public policies. AAPF has led the way in addressing intersectional vulnerability, and is standing ready to meet the current challenge.

On this Thanksgiving & Giving Tuesday, pledge your continued support to AAPF. Your contributions will allow us to expand the reach of our work in 2017 and beyond.

Here's some of what has been made possible this year thanks to your support:

#HerDreamDeferred: A Week on the Status of Black Women: At the end of March, in honor of Women's History Month and the United Nation’s International Decade for People of African Descent, AAPF hosted its second annual #HerDreamDeferred, a weeklong series of activities focused on elevating the crisis facing Black women and other women of color. Topics explored include: #BlackGirlsMatter: Countering Criminalization In & Out of School; #StandingUpForMom: Resisting the War on Black Single Mothers; Race & Gender Below the Mason-Dixon: Advancing the Status of Women of Color in the South; The Unspeakable Truth: The Reality of Sexual Assault at HBCUs; & Neglected at Home After Serving Abroad: The Story of Black Women Veterans.

2nd Annual Breaking Silence: An Arts, Action and Healing Summer Camp: In July, we brought together 70 Black women and girls in upstate New York for five days of art, action, conversation and healing. The women came from nineteen states, as well as Canada, and ranged in age from 12 to 73. Participants had the opportunity to share their stories and celebrate their achievements in a space that centered the livelihood of Black women and girls. Course offerings included dance, spoken word, songwriting, documentary making, hip hop theatre, personal testimony and Town Hall planning. The camp concluded with Silent No More, a camp-wide performance featuring original music, dance and spoken word poetry from the participants and instructors.

The African American Women and the Law Conference: This past September in Washington DC, the African American Women and the Law Conference returned from a 16-year hiatus. The conference, co-sponsored by the Transformative Justice Coalition, AAPF, and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, brought together Black women leaders to draft and pursue a legal and public policy agenda that centers the experiences of Black women and girls and strives to dismantle, in an intersectional manner, the systems that marginalize women of color.

Breaking Silence: An Arts, Action, and Healing Summer Camp

As October arrives, and with it the start of fall, the staff here at the African American Policy Forum is excited to share some reflections on the incredible summer we’ve just had, as we look forward to the upcoming year. From the launch of our brand new #SayHerName video(you can watch it here) and our recent lobbying day on Capitol Hill, to a wide variety of art and speaking engagements, we have spread our message in more than five states and three countries in just the last four months.

However, the pinnacle of the summer came in mid-July. During an exceptionally hot week, more than 60 women and girls of color trekked up to the beautiful Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, for our second annual Breaking Silence Summer Camp. Over the course of a week these women danced, meditated, rapped, and healed, all while engaging with the difficulties of being both a person of color and a woman in the United States today. After a session of dance and meditation, the campers participated in a series of classes that addressed various aspects of art, activism, and healing.

We are so delighted to share a preview of our experiences at Summer Camp with you, and hope you will read more about it on our blog.

Media Spotlight

Our very own Community Engagement Director, Cherrell Brown, was featured in the New York Times this week for her role in the recent protests in Charlotte. Cherrell, who travels between New York and North Carolina was on the front lines of last weeks protests that followed the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. In addition to her physical presence in marches, she was integral in setting up shelters and organizing bail for protestors as well as getting milk to those who had been hit by tear gas. It is an honor to have Cherrell on our team and to support her work.

Read the Full Article

Featured Event

Join us on Sunday, November 20th, at 9:30 p.m. EST, for a night of arts and activism led by AAPF Artist-in-Residence, Abby Dobson. The night will feature a variety of art forms with specific emphasis on spoken word poetry and music as well as performances from Abby Dobson herself. Through Performance, the artists will seek to lift up the voices of Black women who have been victimized by state violence.

Be on the lookout for updates with information on ticket sales and performers!

AAPF In The Media

The Baltimore Sun features on intersectionality, Kimberlé and AAPF.Read it Here.

Upcoming Events

#SayHerName at the Nuyorican Cafe (236 East 3rd St. New York, NY): Sunday, November 20, 9:30 p.m. EST.

AAPF Welcomes 3 New Members To Our Team

Cherrell Brown, the Community Engagement Director at AAPF, is a community organizer and educator from North Carolina. She also works as a social justice educator with Sadie Nash Leadership Project. Before that Cherrell served as one of the National Organizers for Equal Justice USA, a national non-profit organization working towards repealing the death penalty. She is also involved with several grassroots organizations working towards ending police and economic violence and teaches direct action trainings and community organizing 101. She recently traveled to London to obtain an MA in Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity from Birkbeck University.

Kyndall Clark is the Program Coordinator at AAPF. Shortly after graduating from Vanderbilt University in 2013, Kyndall taught 9th grade special education in Philadelphia, PA. After leaving the classroom, she served as an organizer with the #BreakingSilence campaign and a Program Manager at Philadelphia City Council. She completed her Master's thesis on Black and Indian Feminist Pedagogies in West Bengal.

Teddy Fenster, the Assistant Director of AAPF, grew up along the California coast, but has always felt more at home in the Pacific Northwest. He recently graduated from Vassar College with honors in Political Science after writing a senior thesis on the state of voting rights after the Shelby v. Holder decision of 2013. He is also a two-time winner of the Julia Flitner Lamb Prize for excellence in political science. After working in a variety of fields, ranging from scenic carpentry and advertising to events programming, he is excited to join the AAPF team. With hopes of litigating, he intends to pursue a JD in the near future.

Say Her Name Campaign

Recent Events

AAPF Staff Visits The University of Rhode Island:

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, September 27-28, the AAPF Staff hopped on the train up to Kingston, Rhode Island. The University of Rhode Island, which has its main campus in Kingston, held its 20th annual diversity week and, as part of the proceedings, had asked AAPF to help out. Tuesday night Kimberlé Crenshaw took the stage of the Honor Colloquium, "Inequality and the American Dream," delivering the keynote address. The next day the staff led a section of the URI faculty in a training on intersectionality and unequal opportunity.

However, unlike most professional trainings ours takes the form of a board game. Designed off of our "Unequal Opportunity Race" video (watch it Here), our board game asks teams to stand in for the US census' racial categories. Players advance across the board but are stymied or aided by various historical factors such as the Homestead and Chinese Exclusion Acts. As an educational tool, our board game offers an accessible and enjoyable way to have difficult conversations regarding the way race operates, both historically and in the present day, to systematically marginalize major sections of the United States.

The African American Women and the Law Conference:

Read our reflection on September's AAWLC by clicking HERE. You will also be able to read all about our day lobbying on Capitol Hill! Couldn't make it this year or want to come back next year? Updates on The African American Women and the Law Conference 2017 taking place this June in New York coming soon!

On Wednesday June 1st, AAPF Co-Founder & Executive Director Kimberlé Crenshaw & AAPF Board Member Eve Ensler received honorary doctorate degrees from John Jay College of Criminal Justice for their visionary leadership and advocacy around women and girls. Read more about the ceremony here.

During an exceptionally hot week, more than 60 women and girls of color trekked up to the beautiful Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, for our second annual Breaking Silence Summer Camp. Over the course of a week these women danced, meditated, rapped, and healed, all while engaging with the difficulties of being both a person of color and a woman in the United States today. After a session of dance and meditation, the campers participated in a series of classes that addressed various aspects of art, activism, and healing.

One class taught media literacy and the construction of personal narratives, while another sought healing through the creation of songs. AAPF Program Coordinator, Kyndall Clark, and AAPF Community Engagement Director, Cherrell Brown, taught a class aimed at helping local activists produce concrete action plans, with specific emphasis placed on developing Town Halls co-sponsored by AAPF.

After a session of dance and meditation, the campers participated in a series of classes that addressed various aspects of art, activism and healing.

One class taught media literacy and the construction of personal narratives, while another sought healing through the creation of songs. AAPF Program Coordinator, Kyndall Clark, and AAPF Community Engagement Director, Cherrell Brown taught a class aimed at helping local activists produce concrete action plans, with specific emphasis placed on the AAPF town hall process.

This work culminated in events on Saturday and Sunday nights. Featuring several family members of women killed by the police as well as activists, #SayHerName: A Conversation on Police Violence Against Black Women, which took place on Saturday night, sought to illuminate the ways in which frames surrounding state violence often leave out Black women even though they are victimized in highly disproportionate numbers.

The powerful night launched our new #SayHerName video and trended on Periscope, garnering almost three thousand viewers. Sunday’s Silent No More: An Evening of Art and Activism showcased the completed works from the week’s classes. Spoken word followed satirical skits and a beautiful, new choral arrangement from AAPF Artist in Residence, Abby Dobson, brought out the voices of many women who claimed to not be “singers.”

To close out the evening, the group of campers stood up and moved to the back of the room and, dressed all in white, began to dance. Early every morning the women had rehearsed hard and now the work paid off. The women gathered into rows and moved together through the steps as Sweet Honey In The Rock’s Breaths played in the background.

The dance carried the group into an increasingly complicated weave of bodies and, with the last refrain of the song, they all gathered in to a group and held each other in an act of celebration, camaraderie, and power. It wasn’t all work and art, though. In true summer camp fashion, the week was full silliness as well. Games of Celebrity and team dance battles (a particular favorite of AAPF Executive Director Kimberlé Crenshaw) became fiercely competitive and Beyonce’s Lemonade was screened more than once.

This is not to say that the week was easy or light-hearted. In really digging into the marginalization that occurs at the intersections of race and gender, it is nearly impossible to avoid heavy discussions. In order to do the work that needs to be done to lift up the stories of women of color in any real way those discussions must be had and the campers never strayed from those truths. At times this was severely challenging and it was sometimes difficult to find dry eyes. However, as the week came to a close, on Sunday night those tears were gone, replaced by a deep sense of determination and kinship amongst the women. Alternating between holding each other and dancing around the room, they filled the final night with a call and response rallying cry:

At around 4 pm last Thursday the DC office of the National Education Association was filled with a heartening scene. Around a hundred Black women and girls descended the escalator and joined together in affirmation, celebration and hard policy development. Stuck to the walls of the building’s basement auditorium were 20 long sheets of paper each with their own bulleted policy agenda lists marked out in brightly colored ink. One sheet read “Black girls and women are perfect as we are,” while another asked those in the room to “call upon African American lawyers and Black women to fight for election protection.” These pieces of paper, displaying the finished products of nearly 20 different panels, marked the culmination of the last two day’s work, but only the beginning of the central pledge of the African American Women and the Law Conference: to support and advocate for Black women and girls in a broadly inclusive manner that speaks across issues of disability, age, gender identity, class.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, Co-Founder & Executive Director of AAPF, joins Barbara Arnwine, President of TJC, and Michelle Bernard, president and CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy, for the opening plenary.

Dancers from the Breaking Silence Summer Camp hold Meagan Hockaday, Michelle Cusseaux and India Kager high above their heads and in their hearts.

Arising from a 16-year hiatus, the African American Women and the Law Conference: Black Women Still Rising: Ending Structural Racism, Patriarchy and Violence, co-sponsored by the Transformative Justice Coalition, The Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School and the African American Policy Forum, brought together Black women leaders to draft and pursue a legal and public policy agenda that centers the experiences of Black women and girls and strives to dismantle, in an intersectional manner, the systems that marginalize Women of Color. Over the course of two days and 16 panels ranging from “The Hush Among Us: The Target on the Back of Our LGBTQIA Community” to “If Black Girls Matter We Must Rethink ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ And Other Education Policies” and “#Say Her Name: Why We Must Address the Police Killings of Black Women,” the AAWLC attendees worked through some of the most difficult issues facing Women of Color with a focus on drafting hard policy points to advocate for the rights of Black women and girls. Each panel was tasked with producing a list of recommendations to present and be voted on at the closing plenary in gallery walk style. It was these policy points that would be written on the long sheets of paper and stuck up on the walls for all to see.

As the conference came to a close, attendees engaged with these issues once again, this time in a very personal and immediate way. Hosted by AAPF, Say Her Name: An Evening of Arts, Action and Healing asked family members of Black women killed by police to share the moving stories of how they lost their loved ones. These women, Fran Garrett, mother of Michelle Cusseaux, Gina Best, mother of India Kager, and Misha Charlton, sister of Meagan Hockaday, asked the audience to join in reflecting on what justice looks like, both for those who were lost and for their families, when Black women are killed by police. They were joined on stage by a variety of artists performing powerful songs and spoken word poetry. It was a deeply moving display and while somber, full of hope and determination. As the event came to a close, a group of women who had been a part of the Breaking Silence Summer Camp joined together and performed the centerpiece dance from the last Say Her Name event at Vassar College. Clasping hands, they weaved between each other forming a long interconnected braid as the music finished. With that send off the African American Women and the Law Conference came to an end, leaving everyone involved energized, more deeply engaged and determined to further the work, both in policy and personhood, that the last two days had inspired.

On Thursday, with the conference over, but its momentum still strong, the family members and the AAPF staff took their message to Capitol Hill. Guided by the experienced hand of Dara Baldwin of the National Disability Rights Network, the three women met with five Congressional offices and one prominent Senator’s office within just one afternoon. Although our time on the Hill was short, it was a major step forward for the family members as well as AAPF. These conversations, only just the beginning of a longer relationship, bit deeply into issues of violence against Black women and police accountability with both sides taking copious amounts of notes. Moving the forward, the AAPF staff is excited to spread the stories of these women across the Capitol and push for legislation that will lift up their narratives and, hopefully soon, protect Women of Color from state violence.

Want to see what went down at the AAWLC? Watch these videos for a glimpse!

BLACK WOMEN STILL RISING: ENDING STRUCTURAL RACISM, PATRIARCHY, AND VIOLENCE THE AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE LAW CONFERENCE

When: Tuesday, September 13, 5:30pm-9:00pm and Wednesday, September 14, 8:30am-8:00pm

Washington, DC – The Transformative Justice Coalition, the African American Policy Forum, and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies will host “The African American Women and the Law Conference” to examine the role of the law and public policy as it impacts the lives, barriers, and opportunities for Black women’s advancement. The purpose of this historic conference is to develop a Black Women’s Legal and Public Policy Agenda to guide our advocacy efforts for the next several years.

The conference will be held on Tuesday, September 13th through Wednesday, September 14th at the National Education Association. Convened by Barbara Arnwine, President and Founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, host of Radio One’s international radio show, “Igniting Change with Barbara Arnwine,” and Adjunct Professor at North Carolina Central University and Kimberle Crenshaw, Co-Founder and Director of the African American Policy Forum, and Professor of Law at Columbia University and UCLA Law Schools, this conference will feature esteemed legal scholars and advocates including, amongst others, Barbara Smith, Co-Founder of the Combahee Collective, Adrienne Wing, Associate Dean for International and Comparative Law Programs and Bessie Dutton Murray Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, and Farah Tanis, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Women’s Blueprint. This conference aims to highlight the efforts of Black women attorneys, advocates, activists, and change agents and also elevate the narratives of Black women and girls impacted by various educational, judicial, and other social systems. Ultimately, this conference aims to spark and sustain the systematic transformation of Black women and girls’ lives.

Black women and girls occupy a precarious, and often paradoxical, position in the US. Although data suggests Black women pursue post-secondary education at higher rates than either Black men or white women, they are incarcerated at staggeringly high rates. Similarly, Black women account for the fastest growing segment of small business ownership, yet the median wealth of black women is just $100. This contradictory nature of Black women and girls’ experience highlights their unique positioning as targets of varying forms and types of systemic oppression, i.e. racism, sexism, etc., and also their collective efforts to challenge said systems. Thus, the stance of the Transformative Justice Coalition, and co-conveners of the AAWLC, is the necessary adoption of intersectional frameworks that speak to the varying and intersecting systems of exploitation.

The African American Women and the Law Conference will close out with an evening reception entitled, #SayHerName: An Evening of Arts and Activism. This event will both showcase a variety of art forms, from dance to song, as well as provide vigil for women who have been killed by the police and their families. Fran Garrett, mother of Michelle Cusseaux, Gina Best, mother of India Kager, and Misha Charlton, sister of Meagan Hockaday’s sister, will be in attendance. #SayHerName will provide a space for Black women attorneys and their allies to celebrate the progress made concerning Black women and girls and will also serve as a call to action for furthering an intersectional social justice agenda.

Today AAPF mourns the tragic loss of George Curry. He was a journalistic giant, a gifted and pathbreaking leader in the Black press who championed the civil rights movement and the cause of Black liberation throughout his remarkable career - a career that spanned newspapers, TV and the creation of the invaluable Emerge magazine, which he was reviving online at the time of his death.

Whether it was the Supreme Court, the White House or traditional civil rights organizations, Curry was not reluctant to ruffle feathers of friends and foes alike on matters of social justice. His provocative covers during his tenure at Emerge magazine were visual representations of a critical mind that sought to inform and engage on issues impacting Black America. Says Reverend Jesse Jackson: "He called it like he saw it every time."

Named by the National Association of Black Journalists as one of the most influential Black journalists of the 20th Century, Curry was among the first to identify the crisis that became mass incarceration, among the first to confront how the legacy of Thurgood Marshall had been reversed by the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and among the first to recognize how neither conventional civil rights organizations nor Democratic Presidents always serve the best interests of Black America. He represented the finest of the Black journalistic tradition, in both his reporting and in his generous mentorship of young writers and activists. What’s more, he was ready to challenge gender and age biases that shaped Black political discourses, constantly providing information that broadened the way we think about community and political interests. At the end of the day, he was unafraid to take on anyone.

We at AAPF had the great pleasure and honor of working with Curry for nearly twenty years on matters ranging from Affirmative Action to My Brothers Keeper. He was an expert adviser whose guidance we greatly appreciated. More than once he helped us to navigate the tricky waters of elite politics in the DC beltway and beyond. The impact of our campaigns over the years owes much to the sage wisdom and knowledge he gave us as our chief source for media training among our allies. Moreover, he was a member of national and international delegations we jointly participated in to support exchanges with journalists, scholars and activists engaged in racial justice work. We were looking forward to the renewal of Emerge under his extraordinary leadership; and his death represents the lost of a national treasure.

The funeral will take place Saturday at Weeping Mary Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A public viewing will be held from noon to 7pm Friday.

Over 1, 392 miles. Two time zones. Five modes of transportation—car, plane, bus, taxi, and train (then another taxi cab). Twenty-four hours with my eyes opened wide in anticipation. I made it here. If I said that I was excited for this experience, that would be making an understatement.

In May, at the conclusion of my undergraduate career, I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to commit to next or where I wanted to be. Due to all the stress that attached itself to me at the end of this critical chapter, I connected with one of my sisters in the movement. Asking her about self care and how she did it because I needed some! She connected me with the AAPF along with some other resources and opportunities to prepare for this next adventure in life.

I researched different avenues. I read blogs of successful women of color who had triumphed the uncertainty. And I even, I applied for internships. What I found was that there were many places I could go, but those successful women said “no matter where you venture follow your heart & passion!” I found the perfect internship! Then, I remembered a dope article where the woman of God said in order to validate her plan she gave it to God—so I prayed. God, if this thing is meant for me and will put me in the right direction for my life— will You pppppppppuuullllllleeeeeeeaaaaasssssse do miracles, signs, and wonders. But ok... If it’s not what you have for me, I will go home and get prepared for what is next. Amen.

God’s plan was preparation. Day 1 of this divinely prepared summer camp took me to a place of readiness in myself that I never felt before. Like a gardener going out to her field to just put her hand in the soil before doing anything. The morning dance & meditation was the first time in a few years that I had danced consciously or even with a group of folks not feeling ashamed. I had the unction to put my whole self on the front row because there I could be in a space where I wouldn’t have to judge my movement against anyone else’s. I felt free in my own being that I hadn’t recognized in a long time.

As the day continued, the activities and conversations brought the traumas, hurts, pains, and anxieties of my life into the part of my throat where I could feel it getting ready to expel. Sharing stories, clasped hands, deep hugs, and truth have captured me in this moment. It hit me after such an amazing day, that this camp—Breaking the Silence—was designed for us, chosen women, for this appointed time to collectively begin healing. This space was prepared for me to chose life. It hit me that this was His plan of miracles, signs, and wonders. A miracle that I got here in one piece with breath inside my chest. A sign that I will be ok. Wonders that I get to be among my sisters for this moment in life.

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In July 2015, we held our first ever “Breaking Silence: An Arts, Action and Healing Summer Camp” at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie NY. The program brought together over 40 women and girls of color from across the country, ranging in age from 16 to 65. Participants had the opportunity to share their stories and celebrate their achievements in a unique space that centered the livelihood of women and girls of color.

We're now less than 2 weeks from kicking off Year 2 of Summer Camp, taking place again at Vassar from July 20-25, and we could not be more excited to announce that for the first time ever, we are opening up a limited number of Summer Camp spots to the general public. An anonymous donor has offered to support up to three new attendees from across the country, and you're invited to apply!

If you're a woman of color age 16 or older and you are interested in applying for one of these three scholarships, please fill out this formby Monday, July 11th at 6pm EST.

To learn more about our Summer Camp and hear about what it meant to the women and girls who were able to attend, check out last year's video below, and stay tuned for information on how to attend or view our public performance on Sunday, July 24th:

One Year After Charleston & One Week After Orlando, AAPF Condemns Hate Based Terror in America

Today as we mourn the loss of 49 lives in the Orlando massacre, we remember as well the 9 Black parishioners who were killed a year ago this day in Charleston, South Carolina. On June 17 2015, Dylan Roof, a young white man, entered a space meant for healing and prayer with the intent to kill. One year later, this visceral hatred and disregard for safe spaces for marginalized groups still prevails. The recent shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando during Latinx night, where nearly all the victims were queer people of color, is a perfect example of the continuing threat of homegrown terrorism.

In the case of Dylan Roof, his justification left no doubt about his views that Black people were a threat to whiteness - especially to white women, “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” Playing on stereotypes which date back to the 19th Century, these words constituted Roof’s response to a plea from one of the victims to spare their lives. As both massacres exemplify, racial violence is a threat to both men as well as women of color. We cannot ignore the fact that anti-Black rhetoric, homophobia, sexism and all forms of oppression are sentiments that are historically and institutionally embedded in the United States. It is imperative to understand that while such violence becomes increasingly visceral, the countless individuals and communities who have suffered from such violence have faced further marginalization and silence.

We refuse to forget the tragedy that unfolded in Mother Emanual last year, and we remain committed to fighting for visibility and justice for the Charleston 9 as well as the countless others whose lives were stolen by racialized violence. These massacres serve as solemn reminders that the US is not safe for people of color - not even presumptive safe havens such as Emanuel Church and Latinx night at Pulse.

The victims of the Charleston and Orlando shootings must be centered in our nation's discourse around domestic terror. As feminists, we reaffirm our commitment to the intersectional struggles against racism, patriarchy and homophobia. When we talk about this violence, we must recognize the ways in which queer people and people of color have been the targets of these attacks in spaces meant for healing, connection and affirmation. We cannot let the media deflect or distort the fact that domestic terrorism a profound threat to American lives. Continuing to stay silent about this reality is no longer acceptable.

In recent years, single-sex education has been promoted as a critical intervention to target achievement disparities and related challenges facing boys of color. While the prevalence of single-sex education has steadily declined throughout the nation as a whole, single-sex classrooms have re-emerged as an attractive option within initiatives such as My Brothers Keeper and other male empowerment programs. Gender-separated interventions have been premised on the assumption that boys and girls of color face distinct disparities, and that these unique challenges are best approached by distinctly gendered approaches to education.

This convening will bring together researchers, practitioners, advocates and philanthropic partners to explore the rise of gender-separate approaches to public education reform. Among the central questions to be considered are: What conceptions of racial justice and gender difference underwrite the move to gender-separate solutions to low-achievement? Are there gender disparities in private and public resources being made available to address the needs of boys of color and girls of color? If so, how can this problem be addressed? What legal issues are raised by the proliferation of single-sex classes and schools, and how can we ensure that Title IX and constitutional protections are enforced? What role should philanthropy and community engagement play in elevating the values of race and gender equity in contemporary school reform?

PANELISTS & CHAIRS:

Juliet Williams is a Professor of Gender Studies and Associate Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA research and teaching specializations include feminist theory, masculinity studies, gender and the law, gender and education, and feminist cultural studies..

Michael J. Dumas is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the Graduate School of Education and the African American Studies Department. His research sits at the intersection(s) of the cultural politics of Black education, the cultural political economy of urban education, and the futurity of Black childhood(s).

Galen Sherwin is a senior staff attorney at the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she where she works primarily on equality for women and girls in education and employment, with a focus on sex stereotypes and discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and lactation.

Rebecca S. Bigler is Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Ze studies the causes and consequences of social stereotyping and prejudice among children, with a particular focus on gender and racial attitudes.

Lisalyn R. Jacobs is the CEO, of Just Solutions: Bringing in justice to counteract injustice, and the former V.P. of Government Relations for Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense &amp; Education Fund). She has testified before congressional committees at both the state and federal levels.

Jyoti Nanda has been at UCLA School of Law since 2003. Her scholarship interests are in civil rights, social justice advocacy and the ways in which children and youth intersect with the juvenile justice system – with a particular focus on girls and young women.

Barbara Smith is a groundbreaking publisher, activist, author and teacher who has played a significant role in building and sustaining Black Feminism in the United States. She has been visiting professor, writer in residence, freelance writer, and lecturer at numerous universities and research institutions..

Malika Saada Saar is a Washington-based advocate for women and girls’ rights. She is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Project for Girls, a new effort focused on the human rights of vulnerable girls in the U.S. She is also the co-founder and former director of The Rebecca Project for Human Rights.

Tyrone Howard is a UCLA GSEIS Professor of Education, Associate Dean for Equity & Inclusion, the Faculty Director for Center X and Director of Black Male Institute. Best known for his scholarship on race, culture, and education, Dr. Howard is one of the most renowned scholars on educational equity, the African American educational experience, Black males, and urban schools.

Erin Pahlke is a Professor of Psychology at Whitman College whose research focusses on how children and adolescents form their views of race and gender, what the consequences of those views of are, and the impact of experiences with racial and gender diversity of academic and socio-emotional outcomes.

Priscilla Ocen is an Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, where she teaches criminal law, family law and a seminar on race, gender and the law. Her work examines the relationship between race and gender identities and punishment.

Kimberlé Crenshaw co-founded the AAPF and serves as the Executive Director. Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, is a leading authority in the area of Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. Her articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, National Black Law Journal, Stanford Law Review and Southern California Law Review.

Diane Halpern: Dean Emerita of Social Sciences at Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute and Professor of Psychology, Emerita at Claremont McKenna College.

Abigail Saguy: Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at UCLA and author of What's Wrong with Fat? (2013, Oxford University Press)and What is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne

Pedro Noguera: Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University. Dr. Noguera is a sociologist whose scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional, and global contexts.

An assistant professor in sociology, Professor Hunter is faculty in the department of African American Studies, and a faculty affiliate at the Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.

Michael Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at University of Southern California whose work focusses on gender and sports, sports media, and men, feminism and politics.

Linda Sax is a Professor of Education at UCLA GSEIS whose work focusses on gender differences in college student development, undergraduate science education, single-sex education, and higher education assessment.

Barbara Arnwine is the president & founder of Transformative Justice Coalition, is internationally renowned for contributions on critical justice issues including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

Professor Williams is a Profess in the University Of Cincinnati College Of Law, co-director of the university’s joint-degree program in Law and Women’s Studies, a signature program of the College of Law. Professor Williams teaches in the areas of family law, gender discrimination, and constitutional law.

Dennis Parker is director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, leading its efforts in combating discrimination and addressing other issues with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

Walter Allen is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Sociology and the Allan Murray Cartter Chair in Higher Education and UCLA GSEIS. His work focusses on comparative race, ethnicity and inequality, family studies, and diversity in higher education.

Lateefah Simon is program director for the Rosenberg Foundation, which seeks to change the odds for Californians through statewide grantmaking to support policy change. She is a longtime advocate for low-income young women and girls and for juvenile and criminal justice reform.

New York, NY - March 21, 2016 - In honor of Women's History Month and the second year of the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent, the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, the Transformative Justice Coalition, National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, Black Women’s Blueprint, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the American Association of University Women, YWCA, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and other leading gender and racial justice organizations will sponsor “#HerDreamDeferred: A Week on the Status of Black Women,” from March 28-April 1, 2016.

In conjunction with the week’s events, Senator Gillibrand entered into the Congressional Record that for the second year in a row, the last week in March is officially “Black Women’s History Week.” Recognizing years of advocacy by AAPF, Black women leaders in Congress also recently announced the creation of the Caucus on Black Women and Girls. We are grateful that this year’s event series occurs at a political moment when politicians and stakeholders across the country are paying unprecedented attention to the experiences of Black women and girls.

Throughout American history, Black women have mobilized against societal inequality, working to advance racial justice on behalf of themselves, their children, families and communities. Despite the central role they have played in movements for civil rights, the challenges Black women face at the intersections of race and gender have consistently been relegated to the margins of dominant racial and gender justice discourses. To highlight this problem and build frameworks for inclusive and comprehensive social justice reform, AAPF and CISPS will hold its second annual weeklong series of activities with each day dedicated to a specific challenge Black women and girls face in America today.

“This is a critical moment to uplift the realities of Black women and girls, and to push back against the common misconception that they are doing 'just fine,'” explained Kimberlé Crenshaw, Executive Director of AAPF and CISPS. "We are at a political juncture where an increased level of concern is finally being extended toward women and girls of color. It is urgent that we use this moment to ensure that the resources being directed toward this population are sustainable and targeted to uproot the systemic barriers to equality facing Black women and girls."

#HerDreamDeferred is dedicated to elevating issues confronting Black women and girls that are often cast into the shadows of public concern. Each day from March 28-April 1, we will host an online event to highlight a specific set of challenge facing Black women and other women of color. The series will be led by a series of prominent racial and gender justice leaders, including Jamilah Lemieux, Kiese Laymon, Heidi Hartmann, Barbara Arnwine, Anu Bhagwati, and many more. Topics that will be covered include: #BlackGirlsMatter: Countering Criminalization In and Outside of School; #StandingUpForMom: Resisting the War on Black Single Mothers; Race and Gender Below the Mason-Dixon: The Status of Women of Color in the South; The Unspeakable Truth: The Reality of Sexual Assault at HBCUs; and Neglected at Home After Serving Abroad: The Story of Black Women Veterans.

Our goal is to elevate these challenges so that stakeholders across the country can better understand and address the unique challenges facing Black women and girls. Information is key to broaden the public will to develop an inclusive social justice agenda that leaves no one behind.

“In a moment where we are transitioning from one historic presidency to potentially another one, there is a profound possibility that Black women may fall through the cracks again,” explained AAPF co-founder Luke Harris. “AAPF and CISPS will continue our work to generate the public will to collect data on women and girls of color to make sure the information is there to foreground their needs in racial justice agendas.”

On March 10th, AAPF traveled to London for the Women of the World Festival South Bank Centre! Executive Director Kimberle Crenshaw brought #SayHerName to the London stage during her keynote address at WOW and during an interview with BBC Women's Hour; Communications Director Brittany Hazelwood spoke about the legacy of Sojourner Truth; and Associate Director Julia Sharpe-Levine spoke about the possibilities and challenges of global solidarity on the #ActivismWithoutBorders panel.

We also had an exciting conversation with a dynamic group of UK activists and organizers discussing parallels between the lives of women of color in the UK and the US and their efforts to seek justice for ‪#‎SarahReed‬.

We look forward to being back soon to continue building we these brilliant folks!

AAPF and the National Association for Ethnic Studies (NAES) express grave concerns about the recent decision of the Board of Education in Henrico County, Virginia to censor educational material pertaining to racial inequality. The actions of the Board represent a troubling trend in public education that undermines the goals of promoting a healthy democratic society.

As part of Black History Month at Glen Allen High School in Henrico County, Virginia, Professor Ravi K. Perry from Virginia Commonwealth University showed the African American Policy Forum’s Unequal Opportunity Race video. This first-ever Black History Month program at Glen Allen High School was in part a response to a controversy last fall involving a songthat was played over the public announcement system at a football game that included multiple utterances of a racial epithet against African Americans. In consultation with school officials, Perry, who is also President of the National Association for Ethnic Studies, developed a program to facilitate a dialogue with students about contemporary racial issues. The Unequal Opportunity Race video was presented along with other materials.

The 2010 video was produced by AAPF to highlight the historical and structural barriers that create disparate life circumstances within racially marginalized communities. Developed for modern audiences of all ages, the video builds on President Lyndon Johnson’s observations that: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” It shifts the focus of President Johnson’s metaphor from the runners in the race to the conditions of the track -- namely, to the lanes that have been littered with race-based obstacles. In so doing, the video highlights policies and conditions such as slavery, genocide, segregation, underemployment, poor schooling, mass incarceration, and racial profiling that that have cluttered the lanes of racialized communities throughout our history. In this way, the video draws attention to both the disadvantages of having to run in lanes shaped by racial inequality, and the advantages that accrue to those who do not confront such obstacles. While the four-minute video does not pretend to map all inequalities, it does point to class, gender, and other advantages that further enhance the opportunities of runners who are not encumbered by race.

AAPF has used the video in its work for over a decade, and has subsequently created a simulation game to deepen the engagement with the material. Both the video and the game have been extremely well-received by audiences across the country. In settings ranging from public schools and college campuses to churches, businesses and foundations, instructors have used the Unequal Opportunity Race video to facilitate dialogue and understanding about the inter-generational effects of discriminatory laws and public policies. The information is often new to many observers and the dialogues that have ensued have been rich and productive. In the process, the video has served to challenge assumptions that racial inequality is solely the product of individual failure and shortcomings. It has placed institutional and structural disadvantages at the center of meaningful debate about the contemporary significance of racial disparities.

With the exception of the extraordinary actions of the Henrico County School District, the video has never been banned anywhere.

Despite its illustrations of actual policies, historical events, and contemporary racial inequities, the Unequal Opportunity Race video has been demeaned as a "white guilt video" by a vocal minority in Henrico County and by national outlets such asFox News. Though that interpretation of the video is both misguided and unfortunate, Micky Ogburn’s reaction is far more disturbing. Denouncing the video as divisive, Ogburn, the School Board’s Chair, proclaimed that "school leaders have been instructed not to use the video in our schools.”

“This censorship of material that highlights historical and present-day policies constitutes an alarming capitulation to those who would prefer our youth to remain blissfully ignorant about the foundations of contemporary racial inequality,” said AAPF Executive Director Kimberle Crenshaw. “Honest engagement with the continuing legacy of our history should not be held hostage to those who can only relate to this information as a personal indictment. Educators who succumb to these sensibilities rather than working through them only contribute to the shameful mis-education of millions of Americans, many whose indignation about the video is only surpassed by their lack of knowledge about the facts it portrays.”

The Glen Allen School Board’s blatant censorship of this pedagogical tool is reminiscent of both book banning that is unfolding elsewhere in places like Arizona, and other efforts to elide, obscure, or completely ignore the historical facts of United States slavery, racial segregation, genocide, and colonialism. Schools especially, however, should not treat particular aspects of history as “inconvenient truths.”

Most Americans have no idea how much the current patterns of haves and have-nots in the United States are shaped both by explicit laws from the past and also by modern-day policies. While many Americans agree that "the system is rigged" economically, few are aware of the ways in which racial inequality has been structured and embedded in our society. This is why candid, fact-based discussions about racial inequality are so desperately needed. As Luke Harris, co-founder of AAPF, explained, “The real problem is the fact that structural forms of racism are enmeshed in the fabric of American life. If we really are committed to building a harmonious racial future, we need to dismantle that social reality rather than punish folks who are shining a light on it."

Against this backdrop, educators who are willing to teach their students about the history of the United States and the resulting structural inequalities are needed now more than ever. Yet, the “investigation” under way in Glen Allen suggests that the teachers and administrators involved in the Black History month program must worry about their futures. In facing sanctions for their role in seeking honest dialogue about racial injustice, however, they are not alone. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose legacy far surpasses those who sought to discredit him as divisive, was himself committed to working through the creative tension that comes from direct engagement with our history. The urgency in doing so remains even in this era, a fact that is painfully evident in the ill-informed and blatantly racist comments by some of those who support the ban in Glen Allen. The School Board should not support these views by apologizing for the airing of the video or by banning it.

Anyone who is remotely aware of the nation’s ugly history of suppressing materials that challenge dominant ideologies and political orthodoxies should be appalled by these developments. Censorship is certainly not the answer to controversial material and is inconsistent with our most basic constitutional values.

Other options are surely available to those who are made uncomfortable by the video. The School District could have encouraged teachers to facilitate a dialogue so that those who disagreed with the content of the video could explain what they perceive to be its shortcomings. Educators adopt that pedagogical approach all the time. Indeed, the fundamental purpose of the video is to offer alternative perspectives about the significance of our history in order to encourage informed debate about what should be done about contemporary racial inequality. That Ogburn chose censorship over robust engagement denied students access to the very thing schools are supposed to provide--the opportunity to learn and engage in the robust exchange of ideas.

Perry’s presentation to the students began with the importance of ideas, wherein he discussed how seven essential ideas form our consciousness as Americans. It is because of the power of multiple ideas, and the interplay between them, that this moment calls on us to show faith in teachers who know how to guide students from different backgrounds through difficult conversations; and to support education that values tolerance and critical thinking over lockstep agreement. After all, if schools prohibited the inclusion of controversial topics in their curriculum on the grounds that such topics are divisive or alienating, there would be very little in history, political science, or social studies that teachers could cover in their classrooms.

We applaud the local educators who enhance our collective capacity for civic engagement by recognizing the importance of exposing young people to a multiracial and multicultural historical perspective. Professor Perry states, “I firmly stand by the video and will proudly continue to use it as a powerful tool to educate people everywhere about structural discrimination.” AAPF and NAES will redouble our efforts to ensure that educators are equipped with the materials they need to do so.

Monday, February 8, 2016, marks the one year anniversary of Natasha McKenna’s death. In February of last year, Natasha called 911 during a mental health crisis. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 12. Instead of providing her with mental health support, officers brought Natasha to Fairfax County Jail on an outstanding warrant. After being held in jail for seven days, Natasha—who weighed 130 pounds and was 5’4’’ tall—was hooded, shackled, and repeatedly tasered by officers attempting to move her to a mental health facility. Within minutes of being tasered, she stopped breathing. She died in the hospital seven days later — one year ago today.

A disturbing video showing Natasha’s brutal treatment at the hands of law enforcement has been available to the public since September, 2015. Fairfax County Sheriff Stacy Kincaid reported that her office released the video to demonstrate the “professionalism” and “restraint” exhibited by the officers who removed Natasha from her cell and tasered her to the point of unconsciousness. At the same time they released the video, a chief prosecutor declared that no criminal charges would be filed against the officers responsible for Natasha’s death.

Despite this horrific video and the total lack of accountability in Natasha’s case, her story has been met with relative silence from mainstream media and social justice groups. On the one year anniversary of her death, it’s time to stand up for justice. It’s time to #SayHerName.

Join us to ensure that the anniversary of Natasha’s death won’t be met with the same kind of silence. Take action and spread the word with us!

Add your name to the demands for substantive change: Sign Amnesty International’s petition calling upon the Department of Justice to open an expedited investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death and enact national guidelines for taser use.

Are you in the DC area? Join the local actions on February 8:Representatives from groups including Black Lives Matter DMV, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Northern Virginia, African American Policy Forum and Amnesty International USA will first hold a peaceful demonstration while handing out information and petitions outside the detention center, and later that evening will gather for a vigil at All Saints Episcopal Church in Alexandria.

WHAT: Vigil for Natasha McKenna

WHEN: February 8, 2016; 7:00 PM ET

Spread the word on social media: Make your social media networks take notice using the hashtags #NatashaMcKenna and #SayHerName. Use AAPF’s #SayHerName Social Media Guide for background information and ideas!

The gross miscarriage of justice in Natasha McKenna’s case reminds us of the need to be vigilant in our calls to #SayHerName. Today, on the one year anniversary of her death, let’s honor her memory by redoubling our efforts to combat the systemic flaws that allowed Natasha to be treated as a threat to the status quo rather than a woman in need of compassionate support.

We must rededicate ourselves to uplifting her story. We must let the powers that be know that if we don’t get no justice, they won’t get no peace.

#SayHerName -- #NatashaMcKenna

On February 8th, 2015, Natasha McKenna died in Fairfax County Jail after being tased 4 times with 50,000 volts while in the midst of a schizophrenic episode. The incident was captured on video, which was released in September, 2015, as part of the Fairfax County Sheriff Office's announcement that those responsible for McKenna’s death had been cleared of any wrongdoing. Despite the horrific footage, mainstream media and activists have paid little attention to this case. The following talking points are intended to help raise awareness and generate concern around her story.

INTERSECTION OF RACE/GENDER/MENTAL ILLNESS

Natasha McKenna had a long history of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In February 2015, she called 911 during a mental health crisis. Instead of providing her with mental health support, officers brought McKenna to Fairfax County Jail on an outstanding warrant. Police officers are not mental health professionals and often lack the skills and training necessary to handle such situations. While six deputies pinned McKenna to the ground and repeatedly tased her, she pleaded, “You promised you wouldn’t kill me.” When police are increasingly first responders to calls during mental health crises, racial stereotypes can make Black women like McKenna vulnerable to violent restraint and unreasonable force when they should be provided with support and treatment.

WHAT EXACTLY IS “EXCITED DELIRIUM”?

Natasha McKenna’s cause of death was listed as “excited delirium...contributing: schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.” The term ‘excited delirium,” which is not recognized by the medical community, is used nearly exclusively to justify deaths while in police custody. The medical examiner concluded that Natasha McKenna’s death resulted not from being tasered four times but from a condition in which a person with mental illness suddenly dies in a state of distress. It is outrageous that McKenna’s death was ruled an “accident.”

HOW MUCH IS 50,000 VOLTS?

Over the course of 2 minutes and 37 seconds, a total of four 50,000 volt shocks were administered to Natasha McKenna. For comparison, an electric chair used for lethal purposes administers between 1,000 and 2,400 volt shocks. Currently, there are no national guidelines on law enforcement use of tasers, a large part of what allowed McKenna’s killers to escape legal repercussions.There needs to be widespread recognition of the use of non-lethal or “less-lethal” weapons -- such as tasers -- as forms of police brutality. This violence will only continue if officers are permitted to use such dangerous weapons without any restriction.

WHAT ARE THE LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS FOR THE DEPUTIES?

In September of 2015, it was decided that the deputies responsible for Natasha McKenna’s death would face no criminal charges. Fairfax County Sheriff Stacy Kincaid commended the “professionalism” and “patience that the deputies demonstrated” when restraining and tasering McKenna. While the FBI and the Department of Justice have opened independent investigations into Natasha McKenna’s death, this could take years. We need to continue to demand justice and demand it now. Law enforcement officers who abuse their status by administering excessive force must be held accountable for their actions.

CAN THIS BE VIEWED AS SEXUAL ASSAULT?

Yes. Natasha McKenna was completely naked when she was “extracted” from her cell. She was pinned against the ground by several men in uniform. They covered her head in a hood but left the rest of her body exposed. By the end of the video she is unconscious yet the officers continued to manhandle her body. If Natasha McKenna was white, the sexual assault implications of what happened to her would not have been overlooked.

Kimberlé Crenshaw Named Outstanding Scholar by the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation

The African American Policy Forum is pleased to announce that Executive Director Kimberlé Crenshaw will receive the Outstanding Scholar Award from The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. The award is given annually to "a member of the academy who has engaged in outstanding scholarship in the law or government."

“Professor Crenshaw’s extraordinary scholarship and exemplary engagement as a public intellectual certainly embodies the American Bar Foundation’s core commitment to ‘Expanding Knowledge and Advancing Justice,’ especially in respect to fusing together racial and gender justice,” said George Lipsitz, board president of the AAPF. “She is not only one of the most widely read, cited and taught scholars of the law, but also a visionary activist who has promoted the creation of research-based strategies to promote social inclusion.”

Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, Crenshaw is a leading authority in the area of Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. She was a key progenitor of the Critical Race Theory movement and developed the innovative legal framework now known as "intersectionality," a term she coined.

"Her ideas and vision have literally transformed the basis of our thinking and inspired us to break out of our silos and work in the intersection of liberation, justice and equality," says AAPF board member Eve Ensler.

In her work with the African American Policy Forum and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, Crenshaw is a leading advocate for a gender-inclusive approach to racial justice. In 2015 she spearheaded the groundbreaking studies, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected, and Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women and the social media and activism campaigns built on this crucial work, for which she was named Ms. Magazine's #1 Most Inspiring Feminist of 2015.

The #SayHerName campaign exemplifies Crenshaw's work to bring an intersectional understanding of racial justice to the national stage and, says Barbara R. Arnwine, president and founder of The Transformative Justice Coalition, has been "game changing," and has "forever the transformed the Black Lives Matter struggle."

Arnwine describes co-teaching with Crenshaw as "a true joy in my life….Words like brilliant, exemplary and extraordinary are insufficient to capture the full range of her amazing intellectual, scholarly and organizational output."

# # #

The African American Policy Forum (AAPF) is an innovative think tank that connects academics, activists and policy-makers in dismantling structural inequality and engages new ideas and perspectives to transform public discourse and policy. The work of AAPF promotes frameworks and strategies that address the bases of discrimination as they relate to the intersections of race, gender and class.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Today, a historic precedent was set when Daniel Holtzclaw was sentenced to 263 consecutive years for the rape and sexual assault of 8 Black women in Oklahoma City. Although 18 of the 36 counts were not guilty verdicts, leaving 8 women without justice, this day effectively puts law enforcement on notice that Black women will report, testify and seek justice even in the presence of an all-white jury. Holtzclaw sought out Black women in low income neighborhoods with histories of drug dependency or incarceration because he knew they were less likely to report and less likely to be believed. He was mistaken.

With this sentencing, those officers in power will become more hesitant to abuse the authority entrusted to them by the United States of America and its citizens. Those survivors who tell this story will reclaim some of their own power. They can understand the bravery and courage it takes to stand up for their own bodies. Their testimonies will continue to resonate in the souls of the countless survivors of sexual assault who have yet to come forward or seek healing. The world can value a Black woman, regardless of socioeconomic status or background, as a human being that is afforded the same civil rights as every other member of society. Conversations involving rape culture, sexual assault, intersectionality, and the community can be brought to the table with the confidence of educating, learning, and making positive changes towards the future.

We demand action with law enforcement around the country:

We want a national database of officers who have been disciplined, terminated, charged and convicted of sexual misconduct while acting as or using information from their access to the policy department.

We want every officer to have mandatory training as first responders of sexual assault and domestic violence.

We want a zero-tolerance policy in reference to sexual misconduct enforced in every department across the country.

This is a turning point in our history. We will reflect on the moments where we allowed egregious violations of women who didn’t have voices. We will reflect, as organizations, communities, religious affiliations, and media outlets, on how we did not tend to these injustices with urgency or failed to address them at all. That conversation will change due to action, exposure, and bravery on behalf of the community and the brave survivors that came forward to share their stories. We collectively stood up and screamed to the mountain top with these women to demand justice. We must change the conversation and evolve out of a rape culture into a culture that promotes, enforces and defends the right of all women to be safe in their own communities.

The day of accountability is coming soon for Holtzclaw -- the former Oklahoma City Police Officer will be sentenced onJanuary 21, 2016 following his conviction last month of 18 of 36 counts of sexual assault. Holtzclaw’s preying on Black women in the course of duty came to light only after Jannie Ligons, a 57-year-old grandmother, reported the crime to the police. 12 more Black women told similar stories of being violated by Holtzclaw.

But Holtzclaw’s sentencing cannot be the sole focus of our efforts for justice. We must look beyond the verdict and focus on the intersections of race, gender, class, substance dependency and system-involvement that rendered the OKC 13 prey to a rapist with a badge. Countless Black women will continue to be vulnerable to sexual abuse by police even if Holtzclaw receives a life sentence.

Daniel Holtzclaw was not an anomaly. Approximately 1,000 officers lost their badges in a six-year period after having engaged in some form of sexual misconduct. And this is a gross undercounting of how many officers engage in such conduct. Few know that sexual misconduct is the second most reported form of police abuse because it is rarely addressed by the media and within our movements against sexual violence and police abuse.

We have to make this all-too-common form of police abuse visible.

Let’s join together to combat the intersectional erasure of victims of state violence and rape.

January 19: PREPARE TO TAKE ACTIONJoin us for a webinar on the Holtzclaw case and sexual abuse of Black women by law enforcement. Hear from the Organizers of OKC Artists for Justice and other voices from across the country. Share your plans for Visibility and Accountability.

January 20th: MAKE SEXUAL ASSAULT BY LAW ENFORCEMENT VISIBLEStand with the Women in OKC and around the country to bring Sexual Abuse by Police Out of the Shadows!

January 21st: DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM OFFICERS, INSTITUTIONS AND ALLIES: Not only must police departments and elected officials be held accountable, but police sexual abuse must be centered in feminist anti-violence advocacy and anti-racist police reform.

If you demand an end to sexual violence and an end to police abuse, then find a way to get involved! Here are a few ways you can:

January 20 - JOIN THE TWITTER STORM

Using the hashtags #SayHerName, #BlackWomenMatter and #OKC13, share your story of sexual assault, other stories you know, and your thoughts on why the Holtzclaw case matters. Keep your eye out for AAPF’s OKC Toolkit for sample Tweets and info to help you create your own!

January 20 - SHARE A POEM, REFLECTION, OR ARTISTIC EXPRESSION

that sheds light on Black women’s experiences of sexual assault on Facebook and over your own social media. Together, we can show that what happened to the OKC 13 was not an anomaly. Look for details at OKC Artists for Justice.

January 20 - HOLD A FORUM OR IMPROMPTU DISCUSSION

to draw attention to the circumstances that make Black women vulnerable to police abuse. If you are in Oklahoma City, attend OKC Artists for Justice's Community Forum to discuss the Holtzclaw case and how community members can get involved in making changes. Panelists will include Grace Franklin, Candace Liger, Barbara Arnwine, Kimberle Crenshaw, and more. The event will be at 6:00pm at Langston University, 4205 North Lincoln Blvd.

January 21 - On the day of Holtzclaw’s sentencing

January 21 - During Holtzclaw’s sentencing,

TWEET YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE OKC 13 using #SayHerName, #BlackWomenMatter and #OKC13. Demand resources for the OKC 13 and other women across the country who have been sexually assaulted by police. Ask what local organizations are doing to address this issue.

Let’s use this moment to demonstrate that an increasing number of activists, journalists and stakeholders recognize sexual assault as a form of police violence, one that must be included in all of our efforts to combat anti-Black state violence.